


Freshers week

by Overherenow



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Freshers Week, M/M, Pizza, terryfying social interactions, uni - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:04:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13766682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overherenow/pseuds/Overherenow
Summary: Oliver Ardy is a typical first year at The London School of Economics. His new friends are anything but.





	Freshers week

Oliver Ardy, or Ollie to his mates, stood awkwardly next to a booth in a hall filled with young adults all of which had exactly the same hapless “Please like me” expression on there faces. It was that time that all new university students simultaneously look forward to and dread. 

Freshers week. 

He had worked tirelessly through his GCSE’s and A levels to get here. He had spent an anxious night refreshing the UCAS website every ten seconds to find out if he had got into his Uni of choice - the London school of Economics and begging any God he thought would listen that he would not have to go through clearing. 

But he had got into his first choice, he had even got into his choice of Halls too which was an excellent start to his uni carer. He had spent the summer preparing to be here buying cheap cooking utensils from tescos collecting his belongings and spending more time hugging his Mum than he was willing to admit. 

He had driven up with his parents and younger sister on saturday, cried in his room after they left and spent the night having a house party with his new flatmates. He liked them sure but they weren't really his kind of people so he was looking forward to starting his lectures the next monday.

“Well this is fun” A voice next to him makes him start. A tall aristocratic young man leans on the table next to him. He has longish dark hair, a fair face and a kind of arrogance that comes from knowing something that everybody else doesn't. 

“Yeah” Ollie replies half heartedly the crowd is making him claustrophobic and everybody is judging each other to see who would be there new best friend. He extends his hand “My names Ollie, I’m from Salisbury it's nice to meet you.”

The dark haired man takes it graciously with a elegant slightly cool hand. “Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch” he says without a hint of embarrassment. “But everyone calls me Baz.” he gives a tiny smirk at Ollie’s expression. “I know the names a bit much it's a family name.” 

Ollie relaxes and over the rest of the morning they get to know each other Baz is cooly sarcastic, extremely competent in every way and attending most of the same lectures as Ollie himself which puts him high in the running of new best friend. The only thing is he doesn't live in halls which doesn't really matter to much. 

“I lived in dormitories for seven years i didn't really fancy it for one more year.” Baz tells him as they head out of the hall after an extremely boring welcome talk. His phone blips “Oh” he opens the message with the same casual sophistication that he does everything. “Bunce and Snow are outside do you want to get some lunch with us?”

Ollie is thrilled if a little nervous “Are they your friends?”

Baz shrugs “Old friends from school, well Bunce is, Snow is my mortal enemy. We went to boarding school together Snow was my roommate from first year until we left our school.” 

Ollie decides that Baz is exactly the kind of person who has mortal enemy. “Um sure Ok, I mean it's not like you guys are going to eat me are you?”

Baz smirks and Ollie thinks he sees just the hint of a fang “no promises mate.”

*

Ollie first meets the people who would one day become his greatest friends outside of the hall. One an extremely tall young man is munching on a slice of pizza that he must have got from the free dominos pizza booth at the entrance. Now what with Baz calling Snow his mortal enemy Ollie is not expecting Snow to light up like a firework as soon as he sees them coming out of the exit. Not the usual reaction one has to their mortal enemy walking towards them.

“Baz!” he calls and a short girl next to him, or Bunce as it turns out, waves at them even though she barely can not be seen over the crowd. Bunce’s real name turns out to Penelope (or Penny but Baz always calls her Bunce) she is full of energy and terrifyingly clever. 

Ollie has the great privilege of watching Baz melt into a puddle of joy as Snow bounds over to him like an overgrown labrador. “Hi!” He says engulfing Baz in a hug before he turns to look at Ollie. “Oh, your new, I’m Simon Snow! It's nice to meet you. Are you Baz’s new friend? He was texting us about! Baz has never had a new friend since we were eleven.” 

Baz splutters all traces of refined dignity gone in the face of Simon's enthusiasm “I have friends, Snow” he snarls. 

Penelope rolls her eyes obviously used to her two friends bickering “No Baz you don't have friends you have minions.” 

Ollie decides that Baz is exactly the kind of person to have minions.

*

They do eventually become very good friends even more so than all of the other people Ollie makes friends with over the next few years.They are weird and they make reference to things that Ollie doesn't get including the fact that they all find nursery rhymes terrifying. But it doesn't really matter about whatever they were before uni. 

Baz is probably his best friend. For all that he is cool and aloof and often condescending, he is the best person to have on your side when the chips are down. Baz's mortal enemy or boyfriend as the rest of the world would call him, Simon, is possibly one of Ollies favourite people he is brave, kind, always willing to help out a friend and he loves Baz more than he loves scones (Ollie quickly finds out with in seconds that Simon loves scones more than most things). Penny and Simon are attached at the hip so much so that Baz and he had a very long and drunken discussion on the statistics of Penny and Simon running away together. Fortunately for Baz Penny is besotted with her long distance American Boyfriend. 

He gets used to their little quirks like how Simon eats butter like its rationed learns to deal with Simon's bouts of melancholy and Penny's sometimes tumultuous relationship with her Mum He learns to manage Baz's highly strung attitude and talks Baz down from being over dramatic (and the kitchen table) in their third year after his dissertation proposal is rejected.

They are all strange in one way or another. Baz refuses to eat more than a few mouthful in front of company - Ollie wonders if he has an eating disorder before Simon assures him that Baz is extremely embarrassed about his teeth and he can eat an horse all by himself. Baz is also the creation of many many years of upper class rearing and manners. His mansion in Hampshire makes Ollie feel deeply uncomfortable even though social class is something that Ollie has never had to think much about before. The only person who seems more uncomfortable than him there is Simon. Penny is strange in that she claims things are that can not possibly be true such as the only reason she has a dog is that she possessed it and then she couldn't find the owner to give the dog back. She is also so very clever that she makes most of her lectures look like dribbling idiots. 

Simon is much more ordinary than his friends, the only strange thing is that Penny and Baz keep going over to him and saying "These aren't the droids you're looking for" but he assumes that it's just a private joke between the three of them 

But they are there for him too. They are the ones that get him through his second year when the stress drives him batty. They are the ones that feed him pizza and sour cherry scones (Simon's favourite) when Beatrice (his fairly serious girlfriend) breaks up with him. Penny knows everything about everything and digs him out of a few holes in his essays. Baz cheerfully eviscerates a dickhead in there economics and business class that wont stop picking on him. 

*

Ollie is Baz’s Best man at Simon and Baz wedding. Penny is Simon’s Best women and there is a rather tanned girl from california who stares regretfully at Baz and Simon throughout the ceremony. Penny takes her to one side and tells her in no uncertain terms that if she disrupt the ceremony Penny will get Simon to set a dragon on her. The girl pales under her tan and sits at the back of the church not making eye contact with anyone.

Its a lovely ceremony the church is full of Simon and Baz's old school friends, Baz's family, Penny's family and all of their University friends. There are also some very posh people that Ollie presumes are Baz's family friends but Simon watches them like they are suddenly draw swords and challenge him to a duel. It all goes very smoothly. Simon had developed a complex that the cake was going to fall over or otherwise be damaged but Ollie had put Penny on the case and the cake remained undamaged until Baz shoved Simon face first into it after they cut the cake.

Penny did the best mans speech. She and Ollie had argued long and hard over who should do the best man speech. Penny won on the grounds that she had known them both the longest and there for would have the most embarrassing stories about them. It was a good speech including several hilarious anecdotes about Baz and Simons antagonistic relationship before they had gotten together. Ollie had no idea how they had gotten together after Penny details a story about how Baz once pushed Simon down a flight of stairs and several other bouts of attempted murder. Prompting a fond look between the grooms. While she kept things light Penny touched on things that Ollie was only slightly aware of, like Simons guardian who had died when he was seventeen or Baz's mother. But in all it was a great speech everyone laughed and cried when they were supposed to and Ollie felt like he knew his friends just that little but better.

All in all Ollie is very happy that he met Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch on his first day at university at a table in a corner in the middle of a packed and faceless freshers fair. He couldn't have made better friends on that first terrifying day.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I didn't go to the London School of Economics but i did go to University and I have been through Freshers' week. It was hell, and I had Freshers' flu for far to long afterwards.
> 
> Key for people who didn't go to university in the UK  
> Freshers' - 1st year students, usually very young and innocent. Freshers' is the first week of term where there are no lectures basically you go to lots of events and try to make friends with new people. Very few of which you stay friends with  
> Uni- or University, Collage basically. Higher education or hell as its more commonly known.  
> Halls - Dormitories  
> London school of Economics or LSE- The University that Baz goes to in the book after he finishes at Watford. It is a Russell group University (like Ivy league). Seriously though if you want to know more see its website or Wikipedia.  
> 3rd year - the final year of university, usually contains the worst part AKA the dissertation.  
> Dissertation - A very large very long piece of work at the end of uni generally created by the devil to drive students into madness.  
> Fresher's flu- the combination of flu, hangover and the beginnings of malnutrition that all students get after the first few weeks at University. It is actually a misnomer as you will get this every year even if you try very hard to avoid it.  
> UCAS- how you apply to university in the uk its free but on results day the website crashes as too many people use it. They use a points system that correlates to the grades that you get for your A levels added together. Its very complicated and nobody understands it.  
> Clearing - if you don't get into the university that you wanted or you didn't get the grades you need you can go through a process called clearing. Basically the Universitys don't want empty places on their courses and if they don't get enough people with the required grades you can apply for a clearing spot even if you don't have the grades. This is of course subjective and you have to spend several hours on the phone on results day to go through that way.  
> A Levels (Advanced levels) - Evil exams you take in your year 12 (lower 6th) and 13 (upper 6th) also called the 6th form in the olden days. Comparable to the USA's 11th and 12th grades. Typically you take 3 or 4 subjects A to C grades used to be the passing grades with the terrifying U or unclassified grade if you fail them really really badly. However this grading system has changed recently but everybody mostly still uses the grading system.  
> GCSE's - slightly less evil exams you take in year 11they basically are used to carry on to A levels and you uses them on job applications. How many you take is usually set by the school but usually it is at least 5 subjects with English and maths a requirement. However you can take many I took 13!  
> I'm not going to talk about the English baccalaureate or the other equivalents to Uk qualifications or the differences between the English, welsh and Scottish school systems because I will be here all year. If you want more information go look it up or there are some good videos on youtube.  
> Tesco's - a shop that sells most things mostly food and cheep utensils  
> Sailsbury- a town in England specifically Wiltshire in the south west of the country. Famous for its cathedral. Pronounced saulsbury.


End file.
